Tributes paid to Manx Radio pioneer Charlie Webster

Tributes have been paid to former Manx Radio senior producer Charlie Webster, who has died after a career at the station spanning nearly 40 years.

The broadcaster said the "true Manx character" had played "an enormous role" in the station's evolution.

Webster joined Manx Radio in 1965 a year after it launched. During the station's early days it broadcast from a caravan on Douglas seafront.

He later worked with longtime colleague Ewan Leeming to build the "aquarium" studios on Douglas Promenade, with the pair working around the clock at transmitter sites across the island when they had to switch equipment on and off manually at the start and end of each day.

Manx Radio said: "It's impossible to summarise his contribution to Manx Radio in just a few paragraphs."

Webster's wife June, who died in 2023, ran the weekend reception desk for many years, while their daughters Kate and Lucy helped with sports reports on Saturdays.

Webster was also heavily involved in Manx Radio's earliest TT race commentaries.

The Auto-Cycle Union, which controlled the grandstand, would not let the fledgling station's commentators in, so they worked instead from a makeshift box at Douglas Cemetery.

Webster later recalled how the circuit's own chief timekeeper would drop an envelope of unofficial lap times out of a window each lap for him to collect and relay back.

Webster later became Manx Radio's senior producer, taking charge of what the station described as "literally thousands" of programmes and outside broadcasts.

In 2019, when recalling his early career in an interview with Manx Radio, he recalled bringing a secondhand kettle to Tynwald Day to make tea during the broadcast, only for it to blow the fuses just moments before the lieutenant governor arrived.

Months later he managed to do the same thing at an international car rallying event.

Another one of his favourite mishaps was during Manx Radio's first live Remembrance Day broadcast from the Villa Marina.

A microphone placed too close to the gun salute blew the transmitter as it fired, turning the traditional two-minute silence into roughly five hours of dead airtime.

Paying his respects on Facebook, former colleague Paul Moulton said he owed "everything for my long career at the station" to Webster and described him as a "great mentor".

Simon Clarke, who worked closely with Webster early in his own career at the station, described him as "a true gentleman".

Eunice Crossley Dale said she had "many, many laughs along the way working with Charlie. He will be sadly missed".

Sarah Faragher said: "Charlie was the epitome of a gentleman. I always enjoyed seeing him, chatting and listening to his wonderful tales and his incredible wit!"

Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.